Nothing's Gonna Change My World
by prettyredeyes
Summary: One-Shot. Set just before the ending of ME3, therefore spoilers simply because of its setting. A bit of Commander Shepard's introspection just before the final rush to the Citadel beam. Brief mention of Shenko and Shakarian.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Mass Effect. I simply enjoy writing inside its universe!

**Author's Note**: I randomly heard this song on a playlist and was inspired to write this. No planning whatsoever; entirely spur of the moment. This is at once a songfic and yet not. I hope it stands alone, but for interested parties the song that inspired it is Jim Sturgess' rendition of "Across the Universe". I like to get into my character's heads. So once again I bring you my Shepard, just before the end.

* * *

The earth crunched under Shepard's boots, bits of concrete and glass and anything else that had been blasted down to mere grit; remnants of London. The was nothing but darkness at her back, but she knew that nothing dangerous lurked there either. That's where her team waited, flanking her, watching her back.

The light was before her.

It stretched up, up, impossibly high. Far out beyond the Earth's atmosphere, intercepted by the Citadel that floated there serenely. The only bit of serenity in all this _madness_. A thought crossed her mind just then, a consideration to all those people residing on that station. What had been their fate? The thought flickered through her mind, standing there on a street in one of the Wards, feeling your world shift beneath you, feel some amount of claustrophobia that you were locked in. Free to roam, but a prisoner nonetheless. Terrifying, the very thought, in this uncertain time. She wondered how many of those people sat and expected to die. Harvested perhaps, like the colonies that had gone dark before Shepard and her crew had wiped the Collectors from the galaxy. Why else trap them so? They couldn't know.

She closed her eyes a moment. Abolished the thought.

Shepard checked the seals on her armor, though she was already well aware that there was nothing wrong with them. She checked the thermal clip in her gun, though she knew that that too was fine. She ejected it, then reinserted it, then repeated the motion a few more times. Stupid. She was fidgeting, in her own way. She'd been bearing the weight of the galaxy all this time, but it was never more crushing than right then. She knew that in mere moments she would be giving that signal and she would go charging out into the open. This was it. _Yards _lay between her and her goal.

A glance upward.

The Reapers in orbit she could make out circled like vultures, moving almost lazily compared to what she could see of the Fleet ships. But that made sense. The Reapers were confident. Cocky bastards. They were capable of pulling maneuvers that would tear any other ship in half, but few needed to resort to such extreme evasions. The bright beams of Reaper cannons being fired sliced through the blackness of the night above, carving through the Fleet starships caught in their path just as easily.

_Harbinger _was up there, somewhere. She imagined he would hang back, like a king. There to oversee the battle, but awaiting his chance. Ironically, it seemed these machines held a grudge. If Shepard would be undone, he.. it.. would be the one to see to it.

Hell, he'd made sure to remind her of that several times anyway.

One more time, running quick diagnostics on her armor. Seals at one hundred percent. Medi-gel at capacity. Kinetic barriers fully charged. Weapons fully loaded. She was never more ready than now.

A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, a glimmer in the darkness. She glanced back, picking the shape of a long rifle barrel out of the shadows. The metal had caught the light for only a moment. She traced the line in the dim light back, knowing what she'd find at the end of it. The unmistakable shape of the turian; a formidable, hulking shape in the darkness thanks to his armor. She was certainly glad he was on her side. She had nothing to say to him. Those words had been said earlier. Ideally they wouldn't be their last. His presence set her at ease, knowing she had him at her back as always.

A glance to her right, and she could just make out the humanoid shape with his shoulder pressed to a block of concrete, providing cover. There was an odd sensation in the air, like electricity, and she wondered if that was her own nerves or something bleeding through from Kaidan.

Strange that these two should be together now, here. But there were no others she trusted more. She'd loved them both in their own time. Her feelings for Kaidan had waned, and though she still loved him it wasn't that same passion they'd shared years ago. Garrus had filled that void he vacated, and it was to the turian that her heart belonged now. But Kaidan, for all that he had mistrusted her after Cerberus - which had been nothing but perfectly justified - wasn't the sort to let things like that come between them forever. Especially now, it was truly like old times.

_We both know the score. We know this is goodbye._

"This is it," she breathed, knowing she had an open connection. "Make it count."

_Come back alive. It'd be an awfully empty galaxy without you.._

She raised her assault rifle into its ready position in her arms, the ground beneath her feet shifting as she launched forward into a sprint. There was no sound but her own breathing inside the helmet she'd donned, nothing but the rush of blood in her ears. The gun fire, the gasps as other soldiers fell around her. Explosions. Chaos. Death. Nothing mattered anymore. It all seemed to advance in slow motion. This was absolute focus.

The last thing she saw was the capital ship, the arms of the Reaper spreading in ominous descent.

The flash of the beam.


End file.
